July 14, 2007
To BLM campsite at Hotspot: Milepost 60
We have bear spray, but what we really need is "squirrel spray". A pesky squirrel must have worked all night on one of Patrick's front panniers with the food and almost succeeded in gnawing off one of the closure clips.
Just before we leave, we meet a talkative Canadian who is travelling by motorcycle. He takes our picture at the arctic Circle sign. We set off and make good time. The road is mostly rolling, some longer flat sections and a couple steep hills that we have to walk. From the circle to Milepost 90 we have asphalt. After that, hard packed gravel. We see impressive clouds over a wide open landscape with a zigzagging pipeline never far from the road.
At the Finger Mountain wayside we have our first lunch and as we leave it starts to rain. Just before the Hotspot Cafe we pass the barriers from an airstrip that runs next to the road. At the Cafe is a gravel field that BLM classifies as a campground. There is a well for drinking water, an outhouse and some interpretive signs. We just hope for a picnic table or a place to lean our bikes. The sky is still threatening and we quickly dry and then pitch our tent. We planned to cook the spaghetti tonight, but the smells of frying hamburgers at the Hotspot Cafe makes us change our minds.
After we clean up we walk down to the Cafe, the woman who runs the kitchen and everything else, obviously doesn't want to be here. She is from Florida and complains a lot yet has already been here over a decade. The place does need some maintenance, but the burgers are huge and good. We walk back to camp and meet the photographer we first met at Galbraith Lake. He is interested in Patrick's pictures and gives his card.
Just as we settle in the tent, it starts to pour rain.
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